THE DREADED "S" WORD

Weekend update: Its official. Summer/fall is now over. Saturday morning the snow started falling. This after 70 degree weather most of last week. It was the wet, sloppy variety and didn't last long, but the day was bone chilling cold and wet. I had no specific workouts planned outside thankfully. My daughter, the kids, and I went to the annual dog show that we enjoy every year at this time. She was on a mission to find a pug, so we were at the first round of showings, meaning getting out there early in the sloppy wetness. Later, I went to the gym to do some strength training while they hit the pool. I have found that doing some of the yoga stretches I learned Thursday night that the key in my stretch on the right hip is 3 clicks: when my hip rotates out, it makes 3 clicks before I can fully achieve the stretch. So now every time I do this, I am going to be listening for 3 little clicks. The bright side of the day was getting gas for $1.99. I honestly can't remember last when it was that cheap. Enjoy it while it lasts. The rest of the day it was either a steady, raining downpour or a little bit of sleet. Not a nice weather day at all.

Sunday was still cold but dry when I got up and was going to be another run day. I had gone two full days with no hip/back pain and was going to start a heart rate training program, so it really was only going to be a short, 30 minute run. I decided to go to the track, just to help me with my pacing. I talked Don into going with me, and just as we were heading out the door, the snow started again. This time it was mainly the frozen variety, nothing wet or sloppy. Temps were about 34 degrees. We had gotten so spoiled last week! The plan was to walk 5 minutes to get the heart rate going and warm up, then run 10 minutes easy at 70%, then 10 minutes at 80%, then walk 5. We actually ended up walking 5, running 5 easy, running 5 harder, walking 5, running 5 easy and then running 5 harder, ending with walking 5. Each time, I was able to keep my heart rate where it belonged and I felt really good after the whole workout. Only very minor twinges in the hip, but that could have been from running circles. Cold as it was, after the first few laps I was warm most of the time even running into the wind on the north side of the track.

The last time I went to this track in November, I noticed the same thing we noticed yesterday: worm suicide. Thousands of worms out on the track, probably enjoying the unseasonable weather up until midday on Friday and then bam! freeze dried worms when the weather changed later in the day and overnight. I can't imagine what causes this, but like I said, I've seen it before.

Then it was back home to get some stretching in, listening for those 3 clicks. Its amazing that it took all these years for me to realize how much my right hip rotates inward and how easy it has been to fix it, even if only temporarily. I'm hoping after a while that I can train that muscle to stop tightening and keep the hip rotated out where it belongs.

We ended up going to a movie, since the day was still cold and lightly snowing. For once I had no specific family plans or need to go shopping. We saw The Changeling, which in my opinion was a very good movie. I really like movies best that are based on true stories.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing, doing laundry, and trying to catch up on blogs, although I confess I am hopelessly behind! I will catch up hopefully this week, since most of the trial stuff is done for now.

Sometime after it got dark and 8:30 p.m., it must have started snowing much harder, because when I looked out later, my car was covered with snow, the ground was covered with snow, and it was still snowing! This morning, the same.

So life as we know it will change now for several months, while we enter the dark cold side. Sigh. I really hate this cold weather!